Muskegon, Museum of Art

Cinema Sundays & Brown Bag Films

The Muskegon Museum of Art offers the opportunity to see classics in cinematic art on Cinema Sundays and free Brown Bag films on 2nd & 3rd Thursdays of the month.

Cinema Sundays films are screened in the MMA auditorium at 2:00 pm. Admission is free for MMA members, Muskegon Community College students, or with paid Museum admission. Films are presented and introduced by E.J. Hamacher, a film scholar and instructor at Muskegon Community College. Cinema Sundays films are underwritten by Muskegon Community College.

 

 

 

March 4

Gabriel Over the White House

Director Gregory La Cava, 1933, 86 mins.
In this provocative vision of a future Roosevelt-like administration, a callous president is a changed man after a serious accident, embarking on a bizarre and fascist-tinged reformation of the country before bending international relations to his surreal vision of “world peace.”

March 18

Native Land

Directors Leo Hurwitz & Paul Strand, 1942, 80 mins.
Based on testimony from the 1938 U.S. Senate La Follette Committee on Civil Liberties, this radical, independently-produced docudrama builds an uncompromising argument for organized labor by dramatizing real-life violations of the Bill of Rights in the early 1930s by the greedy owners of corporate Big Business.

April 15

My Friend Ivan Lapshin

(Moi drug Ivan Lapshin)

Director Alexei German, 1982, 100mins.
(in Russian with English subtitles)
Lovingly recreating the pre-Stalinist spirit and feeling of provincial Russia in the 1930s, Ivan Lapshin is a complex portrait of the life and relationships of an idealistic police investigator whose falliable attempts at romance contrast with his efficient pursuit of a gang of vicious criminals.

April 22

Purple Noon

(Au Plein Soleil)

Director René Clément, 1960, 118 mins.
(in French & Italian with English subtitles)
The dashing Alain Delon embodies “the talented Mr. Ripley” in the original adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s famous murder thriller. Lusting for his friend’s money and mistress, Ripley devises a daring “perfect crime” of forgery and impersonation under the spotlight a glaring Mediterranean sun.

May 6

The Traveler

(Mossafer)

Director Abbas Kiarostami, 1974, 83 mins.
(in Farsi with English subtitles)
In a simple, poetic performance, Qassem is a 10-year old soccer fanatic determined to travel from his village to Tehran to see his favorite team, that is if he can overcome a few “minor” obstacles like his age, the distance, his lack money, and the disapproving adults that stand in his way.

May 20

Nostalgia for the Light

(Nostalgia de la luz)

Director Patricio Guzmán, 2011, 90m
(Spanish with English subtitles)

In the rarified atmosphere of the Atacama desert in Chile, a diligent search through memory and the past links philosophical astronomers studying the light from the most distant galaxies with somber relatives combing for traces of their loved ones in the secret burial grounds of the Pinochet dictatorship

 

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BROWN BAG FILMS

2nd & 4th Thursdays, 12:15 pm

MMA auditorium

March and April Brown Bag films complement 1934: A New Deal for Artists. May films highlight artists featured in New Art for a New Century. Tour the exhibition after the show! Brown Bag admission is free and so are the coffee and cookies. Bring your own lunch for a relaxing break. Underwritten by the Alcoa Foundation/Howmet

 

March 8

American Visions: Streamlines and Breadlines

(60 mins.) In this chapter of the American Visions series, Robert Hughes examines the progress of American art between 1929 and 1941, as the country struggled out of deep depression into an era of new prosperity. While Europe limped out of one war into another, the US presented a utopian vision of the future through its art and architecture until the bombing of Pearl Harbor destroyed the veneer of isolationist naivety

 

March 22
American Experience: Civilian Conservation Corp

(52 mins.) Learn about one of the most popular New Deal programs—the CCC—that put three million young men to work in camps across America during the height of the Great Depression. This film is part of the popular PBS American Experience history series

 

April 12

The Wizard of Oz

(101 mins.) Sit back and enjoy this familiar 1939 MGM classic. Enjoy the tale of adventure a Kansas twister brings to a young girl and her companions on the yellow brick road to the magical land of Oz. Visit the MMA’s own Tornado Over Kansas during your visit

 

April 26

The American Hobo

87 (mins.) This documentary looks at the adventurous souls who wound their way across America while riding the rails. Author James A. Michener and country music legend Merle Haggard are among the many former hobos interviewed, spinning tales of hopping freight cars and working migratory jobs in the days when the pulsing chug of a locomotive’s iron, coal, and steam made up our country’s lifeblood.

May 10

Robert Henri and the Art Spirit

(29 mins.) The famous artist and teacher Robert Henri was a leader in the American Independent Art Movement at the turn of the 20th century. Born Robert Henry Cozad, a family scandal involving murder and arson forced him to conceal his past and assume a new identity in his late teens. Henri went on to make his new name synonymous with compelling portraiture and great teaching. The Art Spirit, a book of his lectures and writings published in 1924, is still required reading in many art schools today. Using quotes from the book, paintings, and on-location filming in New York, Paris and Ireland, this film tells the story of a man who believed that greatness was within everyone’s grasp if only they would reach far enough within themselves to find it. This film was shown on public broadcasting stations nationwide in 1991 and is shown in conjunction with New Art for the New Century at the MMA.

May 24

Portrait of Two Artists: Hughie Lee Smith and Jacob Lawrence

29 (mins.) Explore the life and art of these two remarkable African American artists. Both Smith and Lawrence were born at the turn of the 20th century and had lengthy art careers. After the film, view the new Hughie Lee Smith painting in New Art for the New Century and a print by Jacob Lawrence—The Builders—on display in the Contemporary Art Showcase in the lower-level hall.